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Germs, Genes, & Civilization: How Epidemics Shaped Who We Are Today (2000)

by David P. Clark(Favorite Author)

3.63 of 5 Votes: 3

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review 1: Amazing. This careful and non-prejudicial toe dipping into what i suppose might be termed epidemiology is fantastic. I cannot describe this any better, how humanity has fought, won, lost and settled into attrition, against parasites, infection and germs.How many historical events where shaped by our reactions to outbreaks of disease, how social behaviors hinder or spread infection.
review 2: "Germs, Genes and Civilization" is a fascinating, thought-provoking survey of "how epidemics shaped who we are today" (in the words of the subtitle). This "shaping" happens on two levels: first, bacteria, viruses, prions, fungi and other sources of nasty epidemics change the human population itself, right down to the genes we carry today. Diseases like tuberculosis, infl... moreuenza, measles and even smallpox became much less virulent over time. The people who were vulnerable to the diseases died without children, while the lucky ones with some degree of immunity passed their genetic good fortune on to future generations, thus increasing widespread resistance to the disease over the centuries. On the other side of the table, pathogens tended gradually to become less deadly: those that promptly killed their hosts didn't spread far and soon burned out. The surviving pathogens tended to be those that made the human host sick but not so sick that he or she didn't survive for awhile to spread the disease. The defenses that our bodies have evolved sometime become problems on their own--the genes that offer some protection from malaria can cause sickle-cell anemia, and those that confer protection from deadly diarrheal diseases can result in cystic fibrosis.The second kind of shaping occurs on a macro level. The Black Death that ravaged Western Europe beginning around 1350 laid the groundwork for the Reformation, the Enlightenment and capitalism, albeit at a horrific cost in human life. Columbus' "discovery" of the New World brought syphilis and possibly typhus to the Old World, but the exchange was catastrophically uneven: Old World diseases wiped out 95% of the per-Columbian America's population, making the New World relatively easy to conquer while at the same time creating a huge demand for imported labor. That, in turn, led to the growth of the African slave trade. Even today, the spread of AIDs in Africa is creating fertile ground for the expansion of a puritanical version of Islam. Clark is a bit dry at times, but his explanations are clear and his book is filled with surprising revelations. It's sobering to realize that the Humble Microbe has had far more influence on the course of human history than any Great Man or Woman. less

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